Search Results

By Credit search: Staff Writer

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Improved playing fields that would be built at a new elementary school at the Fort River School site could be supported with Community Preservation Act money.Following an extended discussion about the request from residents for $3 million to...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — Police reform legislation in Massachusetts and challenges to the health of several officers is making it difficult to keep the Hadley Police Department fully staffed.On the evening of Dec. 21, when the Select Board appointed Officer Jacob...

By STEVE PFARRER

As Marianne Xenos sees it, you’re never too old to find new ways to be creative.Xenos, of Amherst, is a longtime visual artist who also received a degree in literature years ago and wrote poetry and short literary fiction for a time. But that writing...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

AMHERST — The Humble Peach, located at the former site of the Henion Bakery on Amherst’s North Pleasant Street, lays claim to the first fully vegan establishment in the socially conscious town. But the owners say that their mission isn’t merely to...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — Signs containing narratives and graphics to inform visitors and residents about Hadley history are expected to be placed around town in the coming months.Last month, the Planning Board unanimously approved the concept for the four, 2-foot...

By JULIAN MENDOZA

WHATELY — While winter’s warmest days remind us that our climate’s future could be bleak, the future generation reminds us that it may not have to be.Stephanie Apanell’s fourth grade class at Whately Elementary School joined forces with Amherst’s...

By CHRIS LARABEE

After four years operating on Routes 5 and 10, Wool-ology has closed its brick-and-mortar shop and will be expanding its online footprint.The fabric and fiber shop specializing in wool at 242A Greenfield Road is closing its doors last week, as the...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A member of Amherst Town Meeting for more than 40 years, who began his career in activism as part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, is poised to return to municipal service.Vincent O’Connor of Summer Street, along with Jordan Helzer...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Revisions to the town’s zoning bylaws should make it easier for restaurants, bars and nightclubs to operate in Amherst, according to municipal planners.The Town Council on Monday approved a series of changes to sections of the bylaws on Dec....

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Older immigrants to the region, including those without English skills and a formal education, will benefit from development of a new curriculum for a program that will be housed in the long-running English as a Second Language Center at the...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Communities across Massachusetts, including Amherst, will get more financial support from the state for school building projects they are pursuing, although a reimbursement increase recently approved by state officials fell short of appeals...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — Customers trying to get into the Wanczyk Nursery parking lot on the morning of Dec. 28 may have found their way blocked by a deep, narrow trench dug for utilities extending across the entrance and a police officer directing vehicles past the...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A sizable portion of the costs associated with buying an electric school bus and a charger for the Amherst public schools are being covered as part of $1.8 million being provided to cities and towns through a state program.The schools are...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

PELHAM — The town’s Community Preservation Committee has rejected a $53,380 funding request to go toward a $4.7 million project at Amherst Regional High School that would rebuild and reorient the track, and put an artificial turf field inside it.The...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — One-time use plastic bags at supermarkets and department stores, foam containers for takeout food and plastic straws at restaurants will be prohibited in Hadley beginning on Jan. 1.Licensing Coordinator Jennifer Sanders James recently sent a...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Final schematic design elements for an expanded and renovated Jones Library, including putting the art gallery near the basement entrance and moving the young adult area to the second floor, are being endorsed by the Jones Library Building...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A small farm in Amherst near the Hadley town line is accepting Christmas trees, with ornaments and tinsel removed, to feed a half-dozen goats.Michelle Chandler, who has six Nigerian dwarf goats at her farm, said that people are welcome to...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — A retired Massachusetts State Police captain and Amherst resident has been indicted on eight counts related to possession and distribution of child pornography by a Hampshire County Court grand jury. Francis Hart, 62, was arrested at his...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — An East Amherst village center building that once housed the long-running Michael’s Billiards could be converted into 12 efficiency apartments for ServiceNet clients.The Planning Board is in the midst of doing a site plan review for an...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — A final defendant in the 2021 shooting inside the Walmart in Hadley will serve a year in the house of correction, followed by a year on probation, after entering a guilty plea in Hampshire Superior Court this month, according to the...